Full Service | Sunday, December 13, 2020

hey good morning church would you guys all stand with me merry christmas to you guys you guys ready to sing out a little bit are you guys ready to sing out a little bit yeah yeah all right we get to worship the lord in spirit and in truth we get to sing some christmas songs we get to sing some worship songs but more importantly we get to see what the lord has for us today lord we bless you and we thank you when we lift your name up in jesus name we pray amen [Music] [Music] [Music] shepherds [Music] which chance by your [Music] gloria [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] key [Music] [Applause] so [Music] oh [Music] [Music] bed [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] in [Music] so [Music] [Music] glory to god glory in the eyes oh come let us let us [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] the hopes and fears [Music] too [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] let me share a verse with you that's been on my heart john 16 32-33 a time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered each to your own home you will leave me all alone yet i am not alone for my father is with me i have told you these things so that in me you may have peace in this world you will have trouble but take heart i have overcome the world in this season of christmas in advent we are reminded that jesus is the one who brings us peace he is the one who has overcome the world join us in one last song of praise and worship to him [Music] oh [Music] and all of heaven [Music] our hearts overflow [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] the gates of hell now are breaking into peace [Music] the darkness [Music] holy jesus [Music] for your honor [Music] yours is the glory yours is [Music] is is is [Music] jesus [Music] you are holy [Music] jesus so before [Music] it's only for your holy [Music] holy [Music] holy and holy jesus sets only for me [Music] holy jesus it's only for me to sing of your holiness lord that you're all together whole lacking for nothing you're our all-sufficient all-powerful god that we get to worship on this sunday morning lord we see so much fault with humanity and just even this world in its fallen condition but you're all together perfect and that's why i think lord will be singing for centuries to come holy holy holy is the lord god almighty who was and is and is to come would that part of your nature that part of your character lord we celebrate this sunday morning that we get to know a perfect god but perfect not in a condescending um hateful way but perfect in a compassionate and loving and kind way that you're a god that not only cares about us but your thoughts toward us our precious thoughts thoughts of peace not of evil lord you give us a future and a hope how thankful we are for your goodness your holiness and as we open up our bibles lord i pray that we know you and have your heart your mind lord help us to leave behind human notions and our ideas that are off course help us to be on the straight and narrow path of truth from your word lord we pray so blessed this morning sharpen our minds in this morning hour that we receive your word in jesus name we pray amen amen and go ahead and have a seat make yourself comfortable it's good to see you and welcome all right well we're so glad to have you all here with us and um and also those of you that are online joining us thank the lord for you all and it's great how the lord's using the various means and methods these days as uh you know the coronavirus has made a lot of people lock down we've opened up here but but we also know that the church has grown a lot and we have thousands of people watching online and so we're just really thankful for all of you that are you know sticking with it and doing watch parties and what have you good stuff but uh welcome glad to have you hey a few announcements for you uh we won't be uh doing sunday night worship this weekend i've had the crew extremely busy and they're getting ready for some cool christmas activities and uh we'll be back in two weeks for sunday night worship but um but here's a few of the things we're working on we're working on our christmas eve uh celebration it's a it's an atheist home deal where we're encouraging everybody to kind of have a watch party at their house with your family and uh we got a really cool thing in store for you the team has put together some great music some cool uh scriptures and just it'll be a heartwarming i think a blessed uh christmas eve service online so join us uh christmas eve at our normal times what are they like we had so many services last year i don't even remember but like 10 12 2 4 6 8 10 12. i don't remember it was just all over that's what we're gonna have this week uh this this christmas um next sunday we'll be taking uh communion all together uh here in the building but also if you're at home make sure and have those communion elements ready for next sunday's service or next saturday night if you're there uh and be ready for that and i wanted to tell you if you're at home and you've got a watch party um and you you know getting those community elements can be a little tricky sometimes if you ever want to swing by the church office during office hours you can see those online we can hook you up with some of those little communion packets and you can grab a handful of those for your watch party at home and it makes it a lot easier if you want so uh be willing to come down to the office we'll get you all set up with that and have those elements ready for next sunday hey uh have you been having a hard time getting tickets uh to be here i know you guys made it so you're the the the few uh uh some of you are computer hackers i'm convinced uh because i see some of you here every week i'm like you guys you guys are quick quick to the draw um but um but i know there's a lot of you at home saying yeah we've been trying for weeks to get to church hey uh here's a hot ticket for you you can um often look on friday or even saturday or even sunday morning because there's people rude as they are that get the tickets and then they uh they don't use them they tie up the seats and then they turn them back in that's at least they're turning them back in now uh remember a few weeks ago i mentioned there was a group of people just gobbling up tickets and like 20 of our people weren't showing up that got tickets online and i was like man what a bummer i mean people that could have been here that aren't because people were just gobbling up tickets well i made that admonition and uh you know gave a little spanking to some of those people uh and it was really great the next sunday was like six percent instead of 20. but the following sunday went back to 20 um so uh sounds like we need another spanking um but uh but but truly there are tickets opening up oftentimes so check it again after thursday if they're all filled up and you're really wanting to get in the building to a service you know check it again and oftentimes there's quite a few that open up and all the different services so i think there's probably free tickets even for the 12 o'clock as we speak so um so that's happening another thing the church staff has been getting ready and i'm i'm excited about this especially since not everybody's been able to be in the building with us here uh during this season but man you know the staff has done such an awesome job putting together the christmas decorations in here and i know some of you guys have like a tradition of getting a family photo at church and it's part of the deal so what we're we've decided to kind of pull out the stops this year we're going to be opening the building next week december 20th 22nd and the 23rd to have your families come down and we're actually going to have our photographers here we've got some legit photographers here at athey and we'll uh take a a snap of your family get get you all hooked up with some great pictures and we have some cocoa and some cider and for the kids little little bags a goodie bag that that the kids will be able to take home and uh and and but space is limited so you need to sign up for that uh during those three days don't just come and barge in we got to get you a scheduled time so we can have enough time to to do everybody uh it's gonna be great so a little christmas cheer to pop into church during the week and uh get a little photo it'll be great for anybody who wants that and it's free of charge uh you can just come and do that it'll be great well wednesday night verse by verse chapter by chapter book by book right through the bible is where we're going so why don't you grab your bible and turn with me to the book of jeremiah as we go verse by verse through the scriptures jeremiah chapter 23 for today when i was in my 20s me and some of my buddies on a summer afternoon we were sitting around just talking and one of my friends that was there of course tad and a buddy of mine chris thompson who was there and chris is one of the smartest guys i know like just a real you know smart guy and and i was always impressed i was like man if i could only be as smart as chris you know and uh what's so cool though is one afternoon we were talking and chris you know we were just talking and he he said brad i have for you a riddle and he said once there were two doors and you were standing before these two doors and in front of each door is an angel one of the angels in front of one of the doors well that angel is a good angel and always tells the truth one of the angels in front of one of the doors is a bad angel a fallen angel and he always lies but you can't tell which one's which and to make matters more confusing one door don't know which one leads to everlasting life and heaven and the other door leads to eternal destruction and when you choose a door you have to go through that door but you get one question to ask one of the angels before you choose which door what do you ask that's the kind of stuff chris was thinking about then he was giving me this riddle well at this point i had a decision to make do i tell him that i already knew the answer to that riddle or do i kind of drag him along well i thought i'm going to drag him along and i wanted you know to kind of act like i was really smart well let me think about that chris you know it's an interesting dilemma because we have uh you know uh the the power of you know elementary logic at work here with negatives and positives and i and i started talking like i was really smart you know using the venn diagram model in elementary logic if i were to deduce which one was the good door and the bad door and knowing that one of them and i just kind of went and just talked and talked and talked and chris was like you know it's like okay come on what's the answer well after about an hour of me sounding intelligent i finally told chris i said chris here's what you do i've figured it out i think what you do is you walk up to either one of the angels the good or the bad one either one of the doors the good or the bad one and you ask the angel either one either door say what if if i'm wanting to go through into heaven what would the other angel tell me to do and then do the opposite now if you follow the logic of that for those of you that are quick thinking you know that that would actually sort out which door was which and which angel was which and the whole thing and you'd know which door to go through if you say what would the other angel say and then do the opposite chris was blown away by my staggering intellect seriously like he said brad i didn't know you were so smart like this is amazing and he was marveling and finally after about three years i told him that i already knew the story um uh and and i knew the answer to that riddle uh but you know aren't you glad that the door to heaven is not confusing that it doesn't take staggering intellect to figure it out to know what's right and what's wrong aren't you glad that you don't have to be a rocket scientist to make it to heaven i'm so thankful that the way of salvation is so clear and the bible is so clear one of the things i love about teaching the bible is it's absolute it's it's just true there's no wavering there's no confusion there's no contradiction now there's people that try to claim that there's contradiction in the bible but it's never really true i love the bible for what it is god's holy word thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light into my path in these dark days as we see so much misinformation everywhere aren't you thankful that we have the truth right here in our hands we get to read the bible i hope each of you are valuing the scriptures because the person who loves god's word and reads the word and studies the word you're going to find that person there's going to be a stability there if you find a person who's all about the news watching cnn or fox news or msnbc you will find instability there man there's so much untruth um even today in the last few days you know people are debating about what's true and what's false and you know for months there's a group that's been saying you know hunter biden's innocent and it's just you know uh you know a bunch of made-up information about hunter's dealings with china and all this stuff and and there was a bunch of people just saying it was anybody who was saying that was a crazy conspiracy theorist only to find out a couple days ago that hunter has been under investigation for several years now uh by legitimate you know uh investigators and all this and and so they're like oh well or bad we were wrong about that uh and and isn't it interesting that all kind of came out after the election it's an interesting thing how the news i feel like whether you're a conservative or a liberal watch out i i think that there's so much misinformation out there and i've learned to kind of not really trust any of it and you say well brett what do you how do you know what to think well i'm learning i really don't know what to think on a lot of stuff but i do know this this is the one thing i can say for sure the bible is true god's word is a rock that you can put your feet upon and be immovable and unshakeable i love it in these days of uncertainty man thank the lord for his word now in jeremiah's day they didn't have the bible as we know it genesis through revelation they had the pentateuch the torah the hebrew people there in jerusalem and judea under the prophecies of jeremiah they had the first five books of the old testament that was the law of the lord the word of god to them and that was clear for them there was still much for them to know and what was right what was wrong what was good what was bad they had that for them they had the word of god and jeremiah the prophet was one who spoke on behalf of the lord the words of the lord but here in our text this morning by the way i had a whole another teaching planned and then last night right before the saturday night service the lord said nope i want you to do something totally different so we had to shift gears uh and um and i called micah and he put this my keynote together in like 30 seconds um and uh and it works but i think this is what the lord really wants us to hear and so i pray even though i should be doing some warm fuzzy christmas sermon right now hang on to your hats uh this is kind of brutal what is this about it's about these false prophets that were there during the time of jeremiah and it translates today in our world to be cautious we learn a practical lesson about false teaching so let's dive in it's jeremiah chapter 23 we'll start in verse 23 jeremiah 23 23 and there we read in jeremiah 23 23 it says am i a god at hand saith the lord and not a god afar off can any hide himself in secret places that i shall not see him saith the lord do not i fill heaven and earth saith the lord now the lord starts off with these rhetorical questions that are kind of sarcastic it's like the lord is saying are you kidding me do you think i don't see what you guys are all doing do you think i'm hiding and i don't see do you think that i don't fill the heaven and the earth he's he's asking what would really be if you know who god is ridiculous questions why would he why would god ask ridiculous questions because humanity's ridiculous we think that somehow god doesn't see what's going on we think that somehow you know we're able to cover up our sins and get away with stuff and god's too busy to know what's going on in my life or too busy to see what's going on in jerusalem and judea that god says through jeremiah are you guys kidding me don't you know that i'm omnipresent and omniscient that i know all things and then i could be everywhere at once that's the rhetorical questions he starts out with because there's some ridiculous stuff going on well what's that well it goes on verse 25 he says i have heard what the prophet said that prophesy lies in my name saying i have dreamed i have dreamed how long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies yea they are prophets of the deceit of their own hearts which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor as their fathers have forgotten my name for bael the prophet that hath a dream let him tell a dream and he that hath my word let him speak my word faithfully what is the chaff to the wheat saith the lord is not my word like a fire saith the lord and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces therefore behold i am against the prophet saith the lord that steal my words everyone from his neighbor behold i am against the prophets saith the lord that use their tongues and say he sayeth or god says behold i am against them that prophesy false dreams saith the lord and do tell them and cause my people to err by their lies and by their lightness yet i sent them not nor commanded them therefore they shall not profit this people at all saith the lord kind of a play on words in the english at least they will not profit the prophets don't profit p-r-o-f-i-t there's no prophet in these dumb prophets that's what the lord's saying they're speaking lies they're going around i have dreamed a dream who sounds so holy what about dreams since we're on that topic what does the bible say well as it turns out the lord does use from time to time dreams in fact as we get closer to the last days the bible says it says in the end times the old men will dream dreams young men will see visions and they'll have meaning and importance but here's the thing uh we need to have discernment don't we because you know the dream could be from the lord or it could just be the pizza you have the night before you know you got a little active sleep pattern going on and you were dreaming about something really stupid what does it mean and the answer is pretty simple on this one by the way be careful with dreams i've noticed on youtube there's a current trend of people saying i had a dream pastors and bloggers and podcasters i had a dream and i don't know what it means but what's going to happen and and what do you do with those people say man was that from the lord or not well there's a couple things you can do first of all you never change your doctrine because of a dream you always measure a dream against the scripture because the scripture is true in somebody's dream it could be true it could be false and secondly does it not only line up with scripture but does it does it ring true in your heart you see as a christian you and i have a a device that's so cool to discern what's true and what's false and a lot of people don't use it they should it's called the holy spirit and one of the the manifestations of the spirit in your life is to have a discerning of the spirits and discerning what's going on and some of you can say i don't know if that's that's of the lord like for example when i was a young pastor i remember there was all these kind of weird people hippies in my church new christians it just smoked a little too much weed if you know what i mean but they were saved but there was a lot of weird stuff i remember one guy coming up with his beady little eyes and he said brett i think the lord gave me a dream that i'm supposed to marry this girl in the church and literally this guy was chasing this girl around church saying god told me we're going to be married i had a dream and she's like dream on like that's like she was like no way that's not gonna happen ever um and i literally had to call this guy and say dude man you know the the first person that needs to bear witness with that dream is her and she's saying no and i had to say leave her alone and that was like 35 years ago and they're still not married so it must have been the pizza you know dreams can be very misleading and be careful on that you'll hear all these you know people on youtube i had a dream and we saw the world coming to an end well that's a good bet the world will come to an end but but when and all that stuff some people say i saw that by september you know this is going to happen and that's going to happen and and people are all up in a tizzy and it just discredits oftentimes the truth of the word of god people think that christians have to be weird when they see stuff like that be careful with dreams and what have you but to say all that the lord does use dreams from time to time and when you get a dream you should pray about it see what the lord might have you do about it but definitely measure it up against scripture if you have a dream that says you're supposed to you know go and punch somebody in the face that's probably not of the lord because the bible says you're to be kind to people and and love your enemies and do good to those that are bad to you and uh punching someone on the face probably not what the lord would call you to do doesn't line up with scripture well there's a place in the bible where somebody gets punched in the face we saw that on wednesday night jeremiah got punched in the face for sharing the truth isn't it funny that sometimes people resist the truth more than hearing lies and what about today are we a people the united states particularly i can't really speak for the rest of the world but do we seem to be gluttons for untruth we love to hear stuff that we want to hear but when we hear the truth it seems that nobody really wants to tolerate the truth we went from in the 80s and 90s to where you know if you were a christian oh good for you you found your path but don't be pushing it on me now if you're a christian and you're a believer in god and the scriptures man they don't want to tolerate you at all you're one of the most intolerable people on the planet so what's going on with this thing well jeremiah that's the reason this story that we're about to see here really comes to pass for our purpose it's an old testament picture we'll see that but first of all let's take a look at number one if you're jotting down notes number one jeremiah's situation jeremiah's situation what's his situation the lord says i have heard what the prophet said that they prophesy lies in my name they were going around saying i have dreamed and they were also saying did you see what our texts said they were saying god said god told me to tell you oh no isn't that the worst when people say well god said to me what are you supposed to say against that when a person says god said they better be true because you might just have to say i don't believe god told that to you that was not the lord like the guy that said god told me i was supposed to marry that girl and that wasn't the lord so this whole thing these prophets going on well god said these prophets were prophesying lies the only prophet that was speaking the truth was jeremiah now if you're just joining us in the study what was jeremiah's basic message well the whole book of jeremiah is basically 42 years of jeremiah's ministry trying to warn the people of what was coming and he had the word of the lord the problem people didn't like what he had to say not one person in 42 years would listen to one word jeremiah ever said they rejected everything he ever said meanwhile there were hundreds of these other prophets speaking against jeremiah talking smack against jeremiah and then saying everything he said is the opposite so what was jeremiah saying jeremiah was saying in a nutshell hey you guys have moved away from the true and living god and instead of worshiping him you've worshipped all these pagan canaanite deities like baal and kimosh and astruth and moloch and all these pagan gods and goddesses and because of that the lord says destruction is coming you're going down jerusalem judea the babylonians are going to come from the north and two-thirds of you you will be slain in the in the streets and your bodies will lie there and the birds of the air will pluck the flesh off your bones the other third of you will be taken off into captivity into babylon thus saith the lord and the people said we don't like you in fact one king last week we saw like i mentioned earlier um miss king walked up and jeremiah said that's what's gonna happen and the king punched him in the face stuck him into chains and dragged him down and put him in jail the next morning he pulls jeremiah up out of jail and stands before the king again and jeremiah says yep same thing you're going down babylon's coming you're going to go to babylon in captivity well they hated jeremiah's message and because they didn't like what he had to say they rejected it meanwhile all these other what were they saying they were saying the opposite in fact it's jeremiah chapter 27. i'll just read it to you real quick or you can turn there it's right a couple pages away jeremiah 27 12 it says jeremiah says i spake also to zedekiah he was the king of jerusalem at that time and it says according to all the words saying bring your necks under the yoke of the king of babylon and serve him and his people and live why will you die thou and thy people by the sword by the famine by the pestilence as the lord hath spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of babylon therefore verse 14 hearken not to the words of the prophets that speak to you saying you shall not serve the king of babylon for they prophesy a lie unto you what were the bad prophets speaking they were saying hey jeremiah has been drinking his bath water he doesn't know what he's talking about that foolish old prophet and these prophets said the truth is we're going to be victorious we're going to be victorious we have hope and we have victory because we're going to beat the babylonians and it's going to be awesome and they told zedekiah don't listen to jeremiah he's wrong we're right we have the numbers he's just the lone ranger stupid prophet that's saying stuff that nobody wants to hear and so the king as it turns out listened to the bad prophets that were speaking lies and didn't listen to jeremiah that's jeremiah's situation tough gig to be an old testament prophet of the lord but that brings us to number two on our list of things to talk about an old testament illustration remember that the old testament is a picture book teaching us new testament truths and when you read a story that did happen factually in history there's meaning for you and i practically and the the lesson here is pretty easy and it's pretty clear the old testament illustration this story illustrates what happens to the people who reject the true word of god and go with the multitudes go with the majority those who reject god's word and take man's word over god's word and the idea is destruction once you reject god's word you start getting off the path the narrow path that leads to everlasting life and you get on that other path that could be leading right to destruction and by the way what did jesus say about those two paths well he said narrow is the path that leads to eternal life but what is the the path that leads to destruction anybody it's a broad huge highway and many people go down that highway that's what's happening in this old testament illustration nobody's going down the narrow path that jeremiah is presenting the true one but everybody's saying well we we believe all the prophets who are saying it's all good we're going to whip on those babylonians and man we're going to live fat and happy and it's going to be awesome that's what they were saying and that's who they chose to listen i told you that zedekiah was the king at this time do you want to know the story it's by the way it's interesting because the story of zedekiah has caused a little bit of contradiction apparent in the bible i actually had one you know atheist when i was in college say bret there's a contradiction in the story of zedekiah and um they said that zedekiah the one place in the bible says that he would not see babylon because jeremiah was saying come on submit to to nebuchadnezzar and and be taken even if you are a slave at least you'll live that's what he said but zedekiah he didn't listen to jeremiah and so the prophet said you will not see babylon another prophet said you'll actually be in babylon you'll go to babylon which one is it are you going to not go there are you going to go there and so there's this contradiction in the bible where zedekiah was going to see not see babylon but then there's another one who says we would well all you've got to do is read the story i'll show you just real quick those scriptures if you're jotting down notes number one ezekiel the prophet he said this about zedekiah the king he said my net will also will i spread upon him and he shall be taken in mine snare and i will bring him to babylon to the land of the chaldeans yet shall he not see it though he shall die there so people interpreted ezekiel saying they're going to take zedekiah drag him to babylon but before he actually sees babylon they're going to kill him in the land of the chaldeans before he gets there he'll die and not see it that's what ezekiel the prophet says and they say the contradiction is with jeremiah in jeremiah chapter 34 verse 3 jeremiah said and thou shalt zedekiah not escape out of his hand but shall surely be taken and delivered into his hand and thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of babylon and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth and thou shalt go to babylon this is one of those goofy things and by the way all the apparent contradictions of the bible they're all really goofy watch out for these history channel theologians so-called well we know that a whale cannot be that which swallows a human being and because we know that whales they only small swallow small bits of plankton there's no way they could swallow a human and so the bible is contradictory in that jonah was swallowed by a big whale two problems with that albert einstein number one it doesn't say it was a whale it says it was a big fish how big what kind of fish i have no idea it could have been a trout for all i know maybe it was a rainbow trout that god made 10 times bigger than this building oh come on brett do you believe that no problem if god says let there be light and all of a sudden there's a sun fireball in space burning for you know millions of years guess what uh and i don't think it was millions of years ago by the way um but that's what they say god just said let there be light and the sun was created that if you believe genesis 1 1 in the beginning god created heaven and earth nothing else after that is hard a big trout in the ocean okay watch this a big splash in the ocean and this huge trout swallows jonah i don't have a problem with that who knows what kind of fish it was but it was a miraculous story that god actually made happen um that's where you got to watch these apparent contradictions well this is one of them did zedekiah go to babylon or did he not well the answer yes yes what do you mean well the story is in second kings chapter 25 verses 6 through 7. and it's kind of a horrible story so they took the king zedekiah brought him up to the king of babylon to ribla and they gave judgment upon him and they slew the sons of zedekiah before his eyes and then put out the eyes of zedekiah and bound him with fetters of brass and carried him to babylon you see the babylonians wanted to do the cruelest thing they could think of and the last thing that zedekiah would see with his eyes would be his sons slaughtered right in front of him then they poked out his eyes and then they took him to babylon so ezekiel was right he would not see babylon but he did go there he didn't see it because he was blinded but he went there and was carried off into captivity that's the story of zedekiah you say bro what does that have to do with anything everything that's what happens when a person sort of as an old testament you know uh illustration or type or picture is those who reject the word of the lord and go with the lies of the false prophets the false teachers um they end up derailed and in real trouble and what may have seemed very warm and inviting and wonderful i mean jeremiah had the horrible message you're gonna have birds picking your skin off your bones that's a bad message all the other brothers no you're going to live victoriously and have hope and everything's going to be awesome it's all good but it wasn't that's the question what kind of person are you are you the person that would rather hear a lie and feel good about it it's all going to be great and just live with ignorant bliss or would you rather hear the truth i've noticed there are certain people that just would rather plug their ears to the truth and say i just want to know just make me feel better i want to know what makes me happy and it's that people have itching ears and they want to have teachers that teach things that make them feel good and that's human nature so you've got you know jeremiah's situation you have an old testament illustration but then that brings us thirdly and finally to the new testament application there's an application that you and i need to make and it's this is where it's kind of brutal and painful but i've got to say it i've got to say it that there's there's a problem today that i'm seeing and maybe this is why the lord put this on my heart to shift to this teaching this morning and we'll look at these chapters in total context wednesday night we don't skip a verse but i have to say as a pastor of many years now i've become more and more concerned with christians the church of jesus christ pictured in the old testament story as the jews in jerusalem i see this propensity to believe things that people like to hear is it warm and fuzzy oh we'll believe it is it accepting is it diverse is it inclusive oh yes is it tolerant does it make me feel good inside and that's what people measure what they hear about life and good and bad and sin and death and eternal you know condition and all this stuff people just want to hear what they want to hear so it gets to the point where there's these teachers today see this new testament application this is where peter makes the bridge from the old testament to the nuke would you turn with me to second peter chapter two in second peter chapter two peter says listen the story of jeremiah and all the old testament prophets where people weren't listening to the prophets anymore peter says that was an example for for you and for me in the church age to be careful and to watch out it's second peter chapter two verse one let's let's well let's back it up to chapter one because the context here is pretty powerful peter is hammering away here about people who are giving words of prophecy and you know in the new testament prophecy first corinthians 14 verses 1 and 2 prophecies and words of edification exhortation and comfort but people were act like they had a private interpretation of scripture that they alone held the truth on what god really knew and wanted for people so peter has to do some damage control here let's back up to chapter 1 verse 19. ii peter 1 19. he says we also have a more sure word of prophecy what's more sure than a word of prophecy the word of god written in black and white the words we're holding right now this is more sure than some dude saying thus saith the lord when it's written for us see they had only five books we got from genesis to revelation the whole book of the bible so we have a more sure word of prophecy whereunto you do well that you take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place hey listen did the days feel dark you're like yeah it's pretty dark outside right now um dark darkness in our day is something that we feel and these these days we're living there's a lot of depression and suicide is on the rise and covid and lockdowns and riots and you know all this stuff that's going on these are just kind of dark days locally even let alone internationally but peter says man you do well that you take heed to the word a light that shines in a dark place thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light on my path when you're dealing with the true word of god guess what it's enlightening it lights up the dark place i love that about the word it's a light that shineth middle verse 19 until the day dawn and the day star rise in your hearts knowing this verse that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation if there's some person on youtube saying i alone have come up with this understanding and no one else you can just say there's no private interpretation of scripture there's no nobody that's got the lone understanding watch out for people that go around saying i alone understand this scripture i'm the only one who there's people i've met people that think they have a monopoly on certain truth but this is where peter says nope and by the way that's what i love about christianity you know the true pale of orthodoxy of christian faith has been supported by millennia of great men and women of faith for centuries when i read theology i don't generally read what the latest bestsellers are um i'm not into new stuff i'm into the dead guys i like the dead people that wrote solid theological works that that they saw what the bible taught and they they stuck with it man how we need to get back to the old paths the ancient paths we even saw that last wednesday night where the people they were getting off of the ancient paths and getting on to whatever is new whatever's you know uh fun and embracive see that's the problem the old saying of the old theologians it's they're right on the money when they said if it's new it's not if it's new it's not true and if it's true it's not new um be careful a new thought when it comes to theology there's no private interpretation of scripture verse 21 for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of god spake as they were moved by the holy holy ghost so jeremiah is one of those guys moved by the holy spirit spoke the word of god back in those days but verse one of chapter two now this is where we get to it verse one of chapter two says but there were false prophets also among the people even as there shall be false teachers among you who privately shall bring in damnable heresies false teaching even denying the lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction just like zedekiah and many shall follow their pernicious ways mark the word pernicious it's not a word we use as much anymore some of your translations say um you know lascivious um uh others it's it's basically meaning loose moral values that's what that word pernicious means uh you know and and there is kind of believe it or not a sexual implication of perversity there um it's just loose living is the idea so many shall verse 2 follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of not only will they not believe the truth they'll speak evil of the truth and those that try to speak the truth they'll say that person's evil is that ring a bell the bible says that in the last days that they'll call good evil and they'll call evil good that's happening right before our eyes it's one of the reasons i believe we very well could be living in the last days because good is spoken evil of all the time well verse 3 finally it says and through covetousness this is what drives them they want more stuff they're in it for the money covetousness through covetousness they shall with feigned words words that are lying fake news is the idea here they which they with feigned words make merchandise of you they're taking you for a ride selling you a bill of goods is what they're doing make merchandise of you whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not and their damnation slumbereth not peter is right in line with jeremiah he's saying just like the very first verse says this verse one of chapter two as the lying prophets of the old testament were today in the new testament church peter says we have false teachers false prophets old testament false teachers knew and he's warning the church saying don't listen to these guys they're selling you a bill of goods they're doing it for their own selfish gain their own motivations and so there will be people who will speak those things now jesus told us in matthew 24 that one of the signs of the times of the last days of the end of the world matthew 24 read it jesus said there'll be false prophets that will rise up in the last days false teachers just like peter warned and that they will deceive many boy i hope you you realize that you and i we're living in tricky days where people are being deceived all the time i don't know if you're following the politics but it is interesting did you see where the chinese are uh you know china china china china um china has these uh spies and we found one of them this this this last week um what was her name i forget thing yes saving fang thing well she she was this gal that was basically a spy befriending you know senators from our intelligence committee and uh when i say befriending you know basically having you know relationship uh sexually with these senators so that she could get information spying for china and we just found this out you know and so you kind of wonder who where's where are you safe where what's going on in this world you can't believe anything anymore and the answer you can't it's just there's so many lies and so much deceit and who knows what's really going on see now here's where i love this because some of you are saying brother are you talking are you making political statements i'm not i'm just saying this is what's happening and most of the people i know whether you're a conservative or a liberal one thing we know is there's a lot of untruth out there and that's why there's so much division i think we'd all be in agreement if we all believe the same thing but there's so much division and what's really happening what's really going on but see the problem is i find that even in the church we find ourselves divided when you and i as christians we have the word of god and the word should be where we bring it all together and it's the word that's the anchor for the church and it's not some harebrained thing that somebody says that's why you know paul the apostle warned that you know you or me or paul the apostle we should listen with careful ears whether it's pastor brett or pastor paul the apostle acts 17 11 remember he said oh those men of you know berea they were more noble than the men of thessalonica for they searched the scriptures daily to see if what was being taught was true or false search the scriptures daily whose responsibility is that it's yours your responsibility not mine i'm the one speaking i'm the big mouth up here your job is to say is brett teaching things that are from the bible or is he teaching stuff that is just his own opinion and your job is to to use the scripture to measure not only me but all your favorite authors and blogs and podcasters and you see you and i are inundated with information in these days that we live and this is where i'm concerned as a pastor i'm concerned how people so hook line and sinker tend to follow and be sucked in to false teaching false teaching can be ever so subtle and here in the book of jeremiah one of the things i've i'm seeing is this there's a relatability to jeremiah's day where there were fewer and fewer people speaking the truth and more and more people saying thus saith the lord but it was totally whacked totally off course and as a pastor you know i i feel the the it's important for me to watch and warn the congregation from time to time i get people saying brett we think you should just talk about what you're for not about what you're against you know what i think about that i think that's the dumbest thing i've ever heard you guys have talked like that oh where did i talk about things before i'm not a wimp you guys i'm sorry i can't play that dumb game what do you mean bro we should only talk about what we're for it sounds so good doesn't it i hear pastors say we like to talk about what we're really for well then what was jesus doing did jesus ever talk about what he was against like when he marched into the temple that day and made a whip of small chords and threw the tables over and said get these things out of her take these things heads and make not my father's house a house of mercy come on jesus be more positive i sense a little negativity man don't do that jesus spoke all the time about things he was against and and not only that the bible tells me as a pastor a teacher that you're supposed to be measuring with scripture and say is is right or wrong about this stuff that i challenge you all the time in that because i want you to do that not only with me but with everybody that you're listening to you got to measure scripture and say is this what the bible teaches now here's the thing what you'll find is there if you measure it with scripture there's a lot of untrue things being talked about out there and this is where i get deeply concerned that people don't they say well you should only be positive and you shouldn't be calling i i know that you mentioned in your prophecy update you showed videos of bethel and they're flopping on the floor and you showed videos of that pastor of their bethel saying that jesus had to apologize to him remember that um is bethel's teaching hey listen if there's a bible teacher saying listen that jesus owed him an apology that is a false teacher and that's that was one of the pastors of bethel i showed you that in a prophecy update and i could go on and on the new age and all that stuff that the pastor's wife brings into the church and and the minimizing of jesus we can talk about the gold glitter and the laying on graves and soaking up the spirit of people and all the weird stuff they do but those aren't essential doctrines the problem with bethel is not all that stuff as weird as some of that is the problem with bethel is they minimize jesus christ and they glorify themselves that's false teaching people get mad and it's funny as a pastor when i start calling out people um some of you get your gander up just talking to a lady the other day i just love jen hat maker jen hatmaker is a false teacher she she says that the bible's wrong when it comes to the homosexual when the bible says something sinful listen i'm i'm a person who's going to say i cannot agree with the bible i'm going to choose god's side oh but jen's so loving and warren and accepting and all the things she says is so wonderful you need to measure everything up against scripture in scripture six times in the bible does the bible say homosexuality is a sin and it even calls it an abomination unto the lord yeah but brett people were we know more now people were born that way good eye we were all born in sin i was born a sinner too i've got all kinds of tendencies to sin and so do you so we shouldn't be shocked if you want to give him that part of the argument that you were born that way give it to him but the fact is we were all born in sin and we should all understand that the lord wants to save us from our sins not for us to embrace sin so there's pastors by the droves that are starting to accept homosexuality and saying it's not a sin at all and and and and if a pastor is teaching that he is a false if a pastor tells you that his ministry needs your money or else his ministry is going down he is a false teacher god doesn't need your money the lord is the owner of cattle on a thousand hills the bible says my god shall supply all of your needs according to his riches in glory god doesn't need anything that's false teaching if if someone tries to teach and say you know god's not going to judge evil he is a false teacher if somebody tries to say hell doesn't exist he is a false teacher hell's not eternal people get out of hell and love wins at the end you are a false teacher if you believe that and say that the bible talks more about hell than it does about heaven and it's not even questionable what the bible says about that watch out for the false teaching that's starting to permeate churches and you know and it gets ever so subtle you know there's there's people that will try to look like christians and they get very close if someone comes and says jesus is the half-brother of satan you are a false teacher and you're also a mormon the mormons so desperately want to be considered within the pale of orthodoxy do you know that there's a reason the mormons are like we're christians just like you and you talk to them and and i know there's a lot of christians say we want to accept mormons they're so nice they are nice people i like mormon people but they've been taught wrongly jesus is not the half brother of satan and guess what you will never be a god when you reach that celestial level of the mormon heaven that you become god no that's not going to happen bible doesn't teach that one iota that was joseph smith who saw a dream i think it was the pizza that he had the night before if you hear someone teach that jesus is not the half brother saint as it turns out he's michael the archangel you are a false teacher and you're probably from brooklyn from the watchtower society and you're a jehovah's witness it's false teaching and and some of you might say oh brett potato potato just small nuanced things no who jesus is and what he claims to be is not small stuff you've got to go with what the bible says and doctrine matters doctrine matters you know i see the church accepting alcohol more and more and it's tricky because the bible doesn't prohibit drinking wine with your dinner and you can do that and nobody judges you for that having a beer during a football game totally get it but the problem is what i'm seeing is the church is sort of getting not not atheists much we're considered tea totalers and prudes here because my staff and leadership we've all kind of said you know we're gonna we're gonna abstain because we know there's a lot of people struggling with alcohol in our congregation alcoholics who are trying to abstain totally we want to get on board with them and help them not stumble them with our you know drinking so that's what we've chosen to do but here's what i've watched in the church at a greater church especially here in america is we don't know what moderation looks like and and you know i i've i've come across these stories that just start to break my heart of people who've been arrested drunk drivers within these churches and and it's like we don't know you know the government tells us what the blood alcohol level is there's a young couple that i knew they were coming to ac but they didn't like how rigid we were on alcohol and they left and went to another church that was very impressive in fact so abrasive was this church that they went to the pastor would tell about his favorite mixed drinks from the pulpit each sunday and they would have their home groups and at home fellowships they'd open up the cooler and there'd be the coors and they'd all be standing around fellowshipping and drinking and it was great but the problem is there were groups going home a little tipsy after the home fellowship ah they were just a little you know just a little bit tipsy come on you know this is where the bible says some stuff that's pretty scary about drunkenness the government tells you what drunk is and then the lord says be filled with the spirit and not with wine the bible says it's not for kings or rulers to be given to wine lest they forget the law and pervert good judgment but then the scariest one of all is is galatians ephesians talked about those if you continually practice drunkenness you will not inherit the kingdom of heaven so these pastors it can be so subtle hey man it's okay you can drink forget those churches forget athy creek and t total or brett meador and what he says about alcohol and his his somber warnings against the you know demon liquid or whatever forget that guy but here i am saying you guys the bible teaches moderation and that we should be careful never to be drunk with wine uh we don't like that we we don't like hearing that but you got to understand even those little nuancy things can be false teaching teaching things that really don't represent what the heart of the lord is that's really my goal i'm just telling you what my goal is and that is to teach the bible as it stands one of the things that's kind of cool about what we're getting to do here is we go verse by verse to the bible you can take a single verse out of context and make whatever point you want but when you go all the way through the bible it's a little harder to do that because there's other scriptures that will sort of check you anyone who claims these things that are against the bible you know here's a big one here's a subtle one any any teacher that teaches christians should be if they're truly faithful they should be healthy and wealthy it's one of the teachings by the way of bethel is that you'll be healthy if you're really in god's will you will be healed if you have enough faith that's not true that's false teaching why because paul got sick prayed three times he had an infirmity of the flesh infirmity means you're sick you have some kind of disease paul prayed three times and the lord said no paul stop praying you're going to have that for the rest of your life until you go to heaven there are some people that try to teach that if you you know and so you have these stories coming out of reading where you know babies are are being prayed for that have already died and made national news and when that didn't happen people were like what's going on there and it makes people feel bad because our faith must not have been good enough to raise this poor girl from the dead and then they try to do damage control later and stuff like that but i see more people wounded bret we don't like that you're calling people out you should be talking about what you approve of can i just wrap off a few scriptures that you should probably know of you can jot them down in your notes if you want to let me read a few that are important romans chapter 16 verse 17 and 18 says this paul says in the roman church i appeal to you brothers to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught avoid them for such persons do not serve the lord christ but their own appetites and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive ephesians 5 11. take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness but instead expose them paul told the ephesians expose those who are doing stuff that's wrong second corinthians 11 verse 13 through 15. for such men are false apostles deceitful workmen disguising themselves as the apostles of christ and no wonder for even satan disguises himself as an angel of light so it is no surprise of his servants if they also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness their end will correspond with their deeds colossians 2 8 see to it that no one takes you captive by your philosophy an empty deceit according to the human tradition according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to christ second timothy four verses three through four for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths lastly first john 4 1 beloved do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they be from god for many false prophets or false teachers have gone out into the world over and over and over i just gave you my favorite there's tons more of scriptures that say watch out don't just be naive listeners but to be discerning listeners and people that are hearing the word of god and and whatever you hear whatever you read whatever podcast you're listening to measure it against scripture be careful church i see the tendency for people to love stuff that they shouldn't be loving accepting things that we are told to call sin and to run the opposite direction i see doctrine that has become kind of cattywampus and people are confused of what is true and all of this was predicted in the last days that's what happened jesus warned about it we're supposed to be watchful and careful in acts chapter 20 paul told the elders of the church at ephesus watch and warn the flock that jesus purchased with his own blood he purchased the congregation if you think that i'm you know sounding kind of defensive it's defensive for you guys i want our congregation to be the most biblical tight theological people on the planet i'd love for this congregation to know well that's not really in the scriptures sounds good wished i could think that way but if it goes against what the bible says i'm going to choose to think biblically and not with popularity may the lord give us ears to hear what the spirit would say and this story of jeremiah i think this is one of the main things the main lessons of this book of jeremiah is to watch and warn the church of jesus christ against false teaching prophets that are lying speaking to their own you know material goods for their own purposes but misleading many that's happening today and we should be on the guard in jesus name let's pray together lord i i thank you so much for this somber reminder once again in your word you tell us there paul speaking to young timothy that a good minister will put the brethren in remembrance of these things and lord i pray that you would do just that that you would cause us to remember to search the scriptures daily lord give within this congregation a real love for your word i pray that we'd be passionate about your word about measuring the things that we hear and the attitudes that we hold and the political views that we have and all of that measured against the scripture give us understanding of your word lord and help us to apply it lord help us to avoid the pitfall of the people of jeremiah's day who went with the majority rather than the single guy who is speaking your truth powerfully jeremiah lord give us understanding guard the hearts of the congregation i pray and so lord we commit all this to you and pray that you just give us wisdom as we discern in these difficult days in jesus name let's all stand together joey's going to lead us in the final song and but i have an assignment for you during this song would you search your heart right now it's so easy to kind of hear something yeah i'm glad i don't listen to bad stuff glad i don't follow false teaching oh god i'm not sucked into stupidity but you know one of the worst things we do is we we're thinking about someone else when we really the lord wants to search our own hearts could it be that you've absorbed some world view that's contrary to the scripture that you don't even know about it because it's the person that doesn't you know we're the last ones to know when we've actually gone off the rails but like david the psalmist when he said oh lord search my heart see if there be any wicked way in me lead me in the way everlasting can i challenge you to do that right now just between you and the lord say lord are there attitudes that i hold that are more cnn or more fox news and less biblical are there you know things about your son jesus that i believe because somebody said it on a podcast when really your word doesn't say that at all lord are there any things that are just off course and let the lord just kind of stir your heart and then good news there's a fresh reset you can reset right now say lord forgive me for those things give me biblical eyes eyes to see what your word teaches and this is a good restart right here right now so search your heart seek the lord and let's worship the lord as we close i need your presence [Music] the lord my soul cries out fall on me speed fall down breathe a new life in me [Music] spirit i need you wisdom god my heart into your way fill me with living water and i will not thirst again [Music] all of my days i will remain in you all of my days i will bring peace to you [Music] i will run [Music] i will run to you o treasure of my heart yes love o treasure of my heart o treasure [Laughter] [Music] jesus your power break all the chains that bind and send down your fire on us that we can't contain or [Music] all of my days i will remain in you all of my days i will bring [Music] will praise to you oh treasure of my heart [Music] your satisfied [Music] oh [Music] lead me i have surrendered i will go lead me to the rock that is walk by faith and not by sight lord i will go lead me to the rock that is [Music] i will go [Music] lord and i will go lead me to the rock that [Music] [Laughter] [Music] will is to you o treasure of my heart your satisfied cause o treasure of my heart [Music] hold treasure treasure [Music] and i will run i will run to you o treasure of my heart your satisfied and only [Music] lord we do treasure you even as that song sings lord would you lead us in your ways lord would you lead us in your truth would you have us go where you would have us lord we look to you for that direction lord may you be our true north has all these compasses are pointing different ways lord we look to you for that lord we love you father we thank you so much for the love that you have for us and in jesus name we pray all god's people said amen hey merry christmas to you guys have a great rest of the weekend you're dismissed

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Length: 86min 3sec (5163 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 13 2020